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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

William Gibson's Neuromancer: On Prescience and Cultural Impact

Neuromancer by William Gibson has proven
to be both a prophetic and influential work. While Gibson inevitably got
some things wrong, (he completely missed wireless technology) he got so much
right. The depiction of the Matrix anticipated the Internet. This alone gives
this book special distinction.On the cultural
end, this novel predicted that people involved with digital technology would
earn social approval within popular culture, or in more common terms, it
predicted that digital technology and those who were skilled at manipulating it
could be considered “cool.” In the mid
1980s, this seemed like such an unusual concept. I remember thinking this the
first time that I read this book. Today,
so much technology is considered “trendy.” Video games and the people who play
them are often seen as hip and cool. Other groups, such as hackers and online
social groups, are often romanticized. Gibson’s prediction that tech
culture would become socially popular may have turned out to be the most
prescient aspect of this work. The
question arises: How much of this did Gibson predict versus how much did
Gibson’s vision of the future actually shaped what is now a kind of “Techno –Cool?”
From its initial publication, this book
has been popular with young people and people interested and involved with
technology. By influencing these people, Gibson may have actually helped to create
this new kind of “cool.”

This
was one of the first, perhaps the very first, books of the “cyberpunk” genre.
As such, it has had an enormous impact on science fiction that has come since.
Gibson painted a picture of a dark world that was dominated by digital
technology as well as powerful and malevolent corporations, and one that was
full of hip and colorful characters. I have read few other cyberpunk books, and
although I am sure that there are some that are some very good ones out there,
the books that I have read seemed to be pale imitations of this novel.

The
character of Molly seems to be a template for so many characters that came
after. These days, science fiction and young adult books, as well as films,
often depict assertive female characters who are physically attractive, technically
competent and also exhibit fighting prowess These characters are often depicted
as cool and trendy. Molly is all of these things. To some extent, these female
characters have become something of a cliché.

These
attributes are on display in Molly’s first meeting with Case. It involves her
taking him by force.

“My name’s Molly. I’m
collecting you for the man I work for. Just wants to talk, is all. Nobody wants
to hurt you.” “That’s good.” “ ’Cept I do hurt people sometimes,. I guess
it’s just the way I’m wired.” She wore tight black gloveleather jeans and a
bulky black jacket cut from some matte fabric that seemed to absorb light. “If
I put this dartgun away, will you be easy, Case? You look like you like to take
stupid chances.” “Hey, I’m very easy. I’m a pushover, no problem.” “That’s
fine, man…Because you try to fuck around with me, you’ll be taking one of the
stupidest chances of your whole life.” She held out her hands, palms up, the
white fingers slightly spread, and with a barely audible click, ten
double-edged, four centimeter scalpel blades slid from their housings beneath
the burgundy nails. She smiled. The blades slowly withdrew.”

Molly
is not as sanitized or toned down as many of her imitations are.She shows more than just physical prowess.
She is a trained killer. Her violence is not always directed at malicious
characters. Though she has a code of ethics, her morality is questionable at
best. It seems few books dare to take their protagonist as far as Gibson went
with Molly.

Later,
Case observes Molly going on the attack,

“The right attitude; it was
something he could sense, something he could have seen in the posture of
another cowboy leaning into a deck, fingers flying across the board. She had
it: the thing, the moves. And she’d pulled it all together for her entrance.
Pulled it together around the pain in her leg and marched down 3Jane’s stairs
like she owned the place, elbow of her gun arm at her hip, forearm up, wrist
relaxed, swaying the muzzle of the fletcher with the studied nonchalance of a
Regency duelist. It was a performance. It was like the culmination of a
lifetime’s observation of martial arts tapes, cheap ones, the kind Case had
grown up on. For a few seconds, he knew, shewas every bad-ass hero, Sony Mao in the old Shaw videos, Mickey Chiba,
the whole lineage back to Lee and Eastwood. She was walking it the way she
talked it. “

The
above passages paint a picture of “cool and tough” action. Yet, the text seems
to question from where these images and ideas originated. Are we just
glorifying something we learned from television, films and fictional
characters? What impact do books and
films have on our psyches? This passage highlights some of the complexities of
this book and of Molly’s character.It
is not just a futuristic action story about “bad-ass” characters. Gibson
questions the origin and the validity of these concepts.

As
I noted in my original post, I first read this book shortly after it was first
published. At the time, it seemed original but in some ways also unusual.
Rereading it now, when many of its concepts have become commonplace in both
fiction and in real life, it is an enlightening experience. This book has held
up very well over the years. It is still very much worth the read.

31 comments:

I think Gibson points out some of the antecedents of the cyberpunk subgenre. I also was impressed by Gibson's work and went on to read many of his novels and also a number of other cyberpunk writers: Bruce Sterling, KW Jeter, Pat Cadigan are some that I remember. While many soon moved away from the cyberpunk themes, they wrote a number of interesting and intriguing novels.

Hi Fred - I should read some of the writers that you mention. I know that Gibson and Sterling cowrote The Differnce Engine so maybe I will start with that. I am not suprised that the better writers moved beyond cyberpunk. After a while any subgenre would likely become limiting.

Brian--I'll be interested in seeing what you think of _The Difference Engine_. Bruce Sterling has an interesting short novel titled _The Involution Ocean_ which is sort of a combination of _Moby Dick_ and _Dune_. My brief commentary is at the url below:

This is excellent commentary, Brian Joseph. The ideas in this book are fascinating, especially regarding technology, which plays such a large role in our daily lives today. I have not read many (any?) cyberpunk works, but this sounds very worthwhile.

apropos post... i could only add that "it's all about the money"... being employed in the computer/tech industries is lucrative compared to other fields; English teachers, for instance, have a greatly reduced impact on the economy compared to years past... and money lures, creating it's own culture, defining in essence the values of society as a whole... in this sense, Gibson is not only an innovator, but a veritable founding father of the latest generation... great post and acute perception... tx for sharing...

Despite having so much new stuff to read you're really pushing my buttons to read Gibson's 'Sprawl' series again. It's been decades since they blew me away and you've got me thinking how all of those passing years will influence how I read them again... [muses].

Your commentary on William Gibson is excellent. And you pose a very interesting question. Did William Gibson predict the cool/hip cyber world we live in or were his novels instrumental in creating that world? My guess many people who now work with computers or produce computer videos games etc grew up reading Neuromance. As for Molly I haven't read the book but one can see qualities that are similar to Lisbeth Sanders in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and currently Jessica Jones the action hero currently on Netflix. Once again, great post.

From your excellent observations in this post, I can see that I already have very mixed feelings about not only this novel, but the whole genre itself. No wonder I recalled "Blade Runner"! This genre is very dark. In fact, when I looked it up on Wikipedia, I read the following: "Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir..." I have never liked film noir; I find it VERY depressing.

As for Molly, I find her quite hard to take, in spite of the fact that I do like reading about assertive women in fiction. As you know, I dislike coming across profanity in fiction, so I was immediately put off when I saw the infamous "F bomb" in one of your quotes from the book. However, I did like the descriptions of how much in control Molly was in these situations. I guess the profanity comes with the territory, right? Lol. It does seem that, in certain situations, people will respect you more if you use profanity. These are situations in which you're making sure others know that YOU are the one with the power, that NO ONE is going to mess with you, because you just won't tolerate it. These are usually very gritty situations, although I happen to know that they don't have to take place in a street environment. They can just as easily take place in an apparently "civilized" boardroom. I've been in such meetings, so that's how I know. And I HATED every minute of them!!

Having said all that, the focus on digital technology in these cyberpunk novels, and how characters proficient in such technology are portrayed as cool, is something I would certainly enjoy. It's so fascinating that Gibson was so prescient in this area. As you say, he may have actually influenced our current technological and social media environment.

I have just realized something here. I think I prefer the distant future, more utopian SF scenario. That's because I find a certain combination very jarring, and that is the combination of highly intelligent people with a command of technology who, at the same time, act like street-smart felons. I prefer my smart people to have some culture and manners. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned in this respect, which is paradoxical, considering the fact that I consider myself very politically progressive in some areas. But then, we humans are very complex creatures, as I'm sure many aliens would agree. Lol.

Another problem for me is the fact that Molly is a trained killer. I don't like to read books in which main characters are skilled assassins. UGH.

I might still give "Neuromancer" a read, just to read about all the cool technology. But I will borrow the book from my local library. I don't think I will ever want to own it.

This indeed a dark book. The characters are in many ways immoral. They are rough people. It think that Gibson was not advocating this behavior but was trying to reflect the darkness in the world. I think that sometimes fiction need to do this. I can understand why you might not want to read this kind of book.

You make a good point, sometimes the horrible behavior is not just on the street. You also raise a good point about using profanity to project power, there is something to that. I also prefer to be around people who do not use a lot of profanity. I am conse3rvative in my personal behavior. But I think that sometimes it is necessary to portray a certain kind of character.

Very interesting review Brian. Your assessment of Molly's character I'd astute. It seems one person develops a provocative persona and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. We are now inundated with female warrior heroines. The only one I have ever found convincing or sympathetic is the heroine who played opposite Tom Cruise in The Edge of Tomorrow. I don't know if I'll read the book but I certainly enjoyed your review. Take care!

I also read this quite a while ago and your commentary reminded me of why I enjoyed it. Yet it also suggested why I might want to read it again in light of some of my more recent SF reading. Thanks for a great review and a bit of inspiration.

I enjoyed this post. Interesting to consider when a character like Molly becomes a genuinely interesting character vs. a stock figure. For instance, most action heroes (and heroines) are poorly developed characters. Finding ways to make them unique and three-dimensional is a challenge.

Thanks Baili - We are indeed living in times of great change. Books like this help us try to come to terms with these changes. I also agree that these changes are very intertwined with morality and ethics.

Such interesting questions, Brian. I wonder too, was he so influential or just prescient. Molly really does sound familiar by now but in the 80s her character must have been revolutionary.I just saw CyberKitten’s list. I had no idea there were so many Cyber Ounk novels out there.Btw, do you also read Steampunk?